Bureaucrats take axe to logging data

When you submit a development application to transform your house, you know the plans will be pored over by neighbours anxious to find out what you are up to. It used to be the same in the country when you wanted to log the back paddock, but not any more.

On the North Coast, the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change, under its minister, Verity Firth, has reversed the long-standing practice of releasing details about logging operations on private land.

We know this because of two very different decisions made by the same departmental officer when he received two freedom of information applications within eight months.

The department's FoI officer, Racho Donef, received the first request from the North Coast Environment Council in June last year. It sought access to all approvals granted to "harvest, log, clear and remove vegetation" on six properties. Within a month Donef sent back a one-page letter granting access to all the documents.

Then something happened.

In February the same group asked for almost identical documents, including the property vegetation plans and maps and documents identifying old-growth forests and endangered ecological communities. This time Donef said that every document was exempt because disclosure would breach a confidence, would affect the operation of the department and the documents contained information about threatened species.

When the Environment Council requested an internal review, the department ditched those reasons and Alf Zawadzki, the manager of corporate audit and review, came up with two new ones: that the documents concerned the "business affairs" of the landholder or the department and contained information concerning someone's "personal affairs".

With five different grounds of exemption claimed in two decisions, it's pretty clear the department is struggling to come up with a credible argument.

There are good reasons this information has been public in the past and should be now. The Native Vegetation Act, under which the logging takes place, has public registers for land clearing and for logging. The registers are there to give ordinary citizens enough information to use specific provisions in the law to bring an action in court for any breach.

The reason the department says the vegetation maps and logging plans must remain secret is that some landowners have called their office complaining that "people will trespass, machinery could be damaged". An unidentified staff member said landowners could be "blockaded".

As there is no history of blockades of any private property, this is pretty flaky reasoning. More importantly, if people damage machinery or commit other offences, they can be prosecuted. The fact that some unidentified person may commit an offence is no reason under the FoI Act to refuse access to information.

As the minister, Firth should be squirming with embarrassment about her department's stance. If she wants to be taken seriously, she should do something about it.

Posted
by Matthew MooreJuly 7, 2008 1:39 PM

LATEST COMMENTS

This sort of ad hoc fabrication, prevarication and institutionalised corruption will ultimately have to be dealt with by the judiciary. When those involved risk ending up behind bars for their actions, most will baulk at trying to conceal the truth. Meanwhile, it might be worth trying to find out whether any money has changed hands somewhere along the line.